Most of the attorneys I work with post advertisements for Intake Specialists who have experience in call centers or in a customer service environment. They think that someone who knows how to help people, or how to deal with problems, would be the perfect candidate to handle their inbound calls.

You are wrong.

Think about it: What happens when you call customer service online, cable TV, or cell phone? My experience is that when someone does finally answer, they usually sound boring, not very attractive, they certainly don’t smile, and they don’t mind putting me on hold for long periods of time. When they finally get back on the phone, they are still bored, they quickly move me to another department, and I often end the call feeling like they don’t really care if I get the help I need or not.

The reason they are like this is because they know that I have no options to deal with them or not. They know we have to wait and that we can’t hang up and change providers. We are stuck with them and they know it. It’s not like you can suddenly call Spectrum if you have AT&T.

Ultimately, there is no urgency to help you or solve your problem. They are simply doing work for minimum wage and are not invested in helping you or helping your business be the best it can be.

While these representatives can get away with their call centers, this is NOT the case with law firms. You know as well as I do that callers have too many options when it comes to who they choose to represent them. If they treat them like this (and a lot of them do, if you don’t believe me, just call your competition or your own intake team), the callers will quickly hang up the phone and just call the next billboard to view or post. in Google. If your intake team doesn’t know how to build a real relationship, invest the caller on the intake and close the lead, turn that call into a paid case, then you’re just rolling the dice.

So what is the answer?

The solution that I immediately implement with the companies I work with is to run ads for people with inside sales experience. Sales reps have a completely different attitude and know how to work urgently to qualify and close sales. This is the skill set that makes a big difference in the most successful companies.

The reason is that sales reps understand the sales environment and are used to the structure and best practice approaches that lead to higher performance and goal achievement. Sales reps are the perfect choice for legal admission and respond well to:

* Metrics and measurement against performance expectations.

* Training and accountability on using a best practice and script approach.

* Recording your calls and reviewing your performance.

* They are motivated by money and will perform well with the right compensation plan.

* They are competitive and come with high expectations.

Also, the inside sales reps are very close at heart. Your goal is to convert leads into sales, and they are the kind of professionals you want to handle the leads you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for each month.

Think about it: How much does it cost you to generate a phone call for a potential case? $ 400 each? $ 500? Much more?

Every time your phone rings, it’s a $ 500 bill calling, and even thousands of dollars in fees if you convert the case. Do you really want your untrained receptionist to answer that? Want your overworked and untrained case manager to take that call? Do you want your customer service representative (who is not sales trained) to take that call?

No. You want a highly trained inside salesperson to take that call who is trying to set a quota and convert a sale. ESE is the one who will convert more than the $ 500 bills into thousands and thousands of dollars in boxes per month.

And don’t tell me about your supervisors and managers … I’ll address that in another article …

Bottom line: it’s easier than you think to upgrade your admissions department and increase your conversion rates. It just won’t happen if you don’t upgrade or train your existing team on best practices within the sales approaches they need to be successful.

Stop expecting customer service reps to do what trained in-house sales reps are supposed to do for you. Hiring and training successful internal sales teams is what we’ve done for over 30 years, and it’s the best investment you’ll ever make in your company’s profitability.

If you want to know more about this, please contact us.

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